Freddie Freeman and Steve Delebar Win MLB’s “Final Vote”

On Thursday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced the winners of the AL & NL “Final Vote” for the 2013 MLB All-Star Game, and there was a pretty shocking result in the National League.

Courtesy of MLB’s public relations department:

The aforementioned shocking result was the inclusion of Atlanta 1B Freddie Freeman over Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig, despite what many perceived to be a major ESPN “push” behind Puig’s candidacy. Freeman had a deserving stat line of a .304 average (.385 OBP), 9 home runs, 49 runs, and 56 RBI, but Puig’s insane .394 average (1.062 OPS) has taken the league by storm in recent days and the consensus was that he would cruise to victory in the fan voting.

In the American League, Toronto reliever Steve Delabar grabbed the selection over David Robertson, Koji Uehara, Joaquin Benoit, and Tanner Scheppers. Delabar has been lights-out this season, putting up a 1.74 ERA over 41.1 innings with a crazy 12.41 K/9 ratio.

Both Freeman and Delabar led wire-to-wire in the announced voting, and each is extremely deserving. I, for one, hope that Puig’s shadow isn’t cast over the proceedings, as he was certainly tremendous in a small sample size, but not in a way that he should be considered a “snub” today. After all, there is even the possibility that he could be selected as an injury replacement! Let the fun continue.